I’m pretty sure that Renfrew Councillor John McDonald has always had game. I don’t think you can be a big-city police officer without having a certain predisposition for getting to the bottom of things, and it appears that trait and that predisposition has transferred to his work on Renfrew Town Council.
All that said, at least from my perspective, the councillor has found his political and administrative accountability game, or has refined it, in the several months that I’ve been following Council.
Being a politician, and being an elected councillor, are not things that are easily done. Like any job or endeavour, it takes a bit of time to sort out the environment, the players, the issues, and the answers involving those issues. You don’t just open a jar of political acumen and pour it out on a plate. Instead, it’s something that’s learned and earned, and if you’re earnest in your reasons for being a councillor, then that learning and earning are important parts of the process.
Councillor McDonald appears to be well on his way.
And I can say this as something I’ve witnessed over these past several months, where the councillor appears to be more sure-footed, not that he had major footing issues before. Still, there’s a learning curve to the whole thing, and I still maintain that workshops should be offered to staffers on how to communicate to Council and the public and other workshops where the Council and public can learn to decipher whatever the hell it is that staffers are saying. Because we don’t have a budget for translators.
McDonald has separated himself somewhat from the pack, not that seven elected officials represent a pack of any sort, but if you’re going to write about stuff, it’s important to protect your metaphors.
He’s always shown up prepared, and one gets a certain degree of confidence that the councillor always reads his agenda and briefing materials, goes through the process of analysis and synthesis, and always investing in some reflection around that same material.
For the past several general council meetings, McDonald has done his homework as always, but has followed that up with an inclination to pose questions and follow-ups that get to the core of the subject matter and work to divide the wheat from the chaff.
It was McDonald who took the time and made the effort to get to the bottom of the entire HR Liaison mess that Council was punting back and forth and had literally voted themselves out of options. It appeared he took in all the arguments, applied the analysis, and then offered the synthesis where he came up with a plan that turned out to be palatable to the rest of Council.
That the solution proposed by Councillor McDonald was awfully close to the one I was proposing from Deep Left Field also endears the councillor to this writer, although I’m sure my proposals had no impact on his. I’m not even entirely sure if he reads any of my stuff anyways, and I do feel that he can be a little difficult to receive a return email from, although not nearly as bad as the mayor and Councillor Legris who, I suppose, feel they live a charmed existence and couldn’t be bothered to check out any stuff prepared by a man with decades of political and issue experience.
Despite the fact that Councillor McDonald and I are not text buddies, or buddies of any kind, I can still observe and do my own analysis of what’s right in front of me, and to that end, the councillor is looking more and more impressive each time out.
No drama, no histrionics, just questions. Just a fellow doing his job, and apparently well. He may or may not have been part of the hatchet-throwing directed at Reeve Emon on a couple of occasions, and I’m not saying he’s right or wrong on that if he was, but there doesn’t appear to be any real need for political pettiness when McDonald is concerned. And if I got that wrong, as he is wont to point out to me when I am, then perhaps it’s something that a little bit of polish might remove, leaving to an improved overall result.
I don’t know what Councillor McDonald’s intentions are politically, as he seems to keep cards like that, if he even has them, close to his vest. But having said that, I feel I’m witnessing a councillor really coming into his own, and he’s done so in an environment and at a time where council business has been extremely difficult with crises coming out of the woodwork right, left, and centre. Navigating the personalities involved in municipal government is another challenge in its own right. Yet McDonald appears to be getting on top of things with a quiet demonstration of resolve and preparation, backed-up with what appears to be a genuine concern for the well-being of his town and his constituents.
I don’t need the man to answer my emails to get a sense of how he’s doing, and in fairness, I haven’t emailed him for information in a very long time, so I can’t really say he’s ignoring me anymore, because he successfully ignored me in the past, to the point where I don’t even bother any more. So, in a way,. I guess I kind of have to give him props for that.
Still, I believe it would be a shame if an individual like this chose not to run for council again in 2026, predominantly because it’s been pretty close to a thankless job for very little money for the aggravation.
Yet this is exactly the kind of representation that people need and deserve.
We may not be living in a pretty times, and the issues confronting our municipal politicians are far from being pretty in their own right. John McDonald doesn’t appear to be here to put a lace bow on any of this, but it’s become apparent that he would be intent on continuing his highly effective degree of representation moving forward if he could be compelled to run again.
If there’s a tragedy in any of this, it’s the poor guy doesn’t read my stuff.
So he’ll probably never see any of this.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 